8,000 Year Old Evidence of Human Activity Found in Alps

Fourteen-year-long archaeological excavations in the Parc
National des Écrins in the southern Alps have provided evidence of
human activity from the Mesolithic to the Post-Medieval period.

Dr Kevin Walsh from the University of York with colleagues unearthed a
series of stone animal enclosures and human dwellings considered some
of most complex high altitude Bronze Age structures found anywhere in
the Alps.

“High altitude landscapes of 2 km and above are considered remote and
marginal. Many researchers had assumed that early societies showed
little interest in these areas,” said Dr Walsh, who reported the results
in a paper published in Quaternary International.